The I Love Coffee Burleigh Bears returned to winning form with a hard-earned 18-14 victory over Souths Logan at Pizzey Park yesterday.
It was a courageous performance from the Bears who lost both Brad Tighe and Anthony Don to injury while a number of others played on wounded.
On the back of four straight losses it was a result the Bears needed and they dug deep and found a way to win.
“We knew it was never going to be an easy result and we’d have to earn a hard one, then to lose Brad Tighe in the opening minutes and then Anthony Don not long into the second half put us under a lot of interchange stress,” Bears coach Jim Lenihan said.
“We had a lot of tired blokes out there working hard and to come away with the win is very pleasing.
“I’m just happy for the boys. We’ve had a tough month and the young blokes stood up for us again and it was really good to see us tough it out.”
The Bears started the game slowly with ball control letting them down in the first half. It was a Burleigh error that led to the opening try in the 7th minute as Ihaka Watene ran the length to score.
The only other points in the first half came on the stroke of halftime in the way of a Scott Doyle penalty goal.
Burleigh responded shortly after the break as 18-year-old Talor Walters grabbed his second try in just his second appearance in the Intrust Super Cup.
Walters’ try seemed to lift the Bears and they managed to cross twice more in the next 10 minutes.
In the 49th minute Dimitri Pelo crossed out wide thanks to a lovely cut-out ball from Louis Fanene, while Josh Ailaomai powered over shortly after to give the Bears a 10-point lead.
Souths did their best to fight their way back into the game and set-up the grand stand finish with a 75th minute try to Doyle, but the Bears held on and recorded a much needed win.
Fullback Walters was named man-of-the-match in what was another impressive display from the youngster.
“He’s pretty natural out there, Talor. It doesn’t look like it’s his second game of Cup,” Lenihan said.
“I thought (Sam) Swift and Jenan (Parrish) played well too and that’s what we’re all about at the moment; giving the young blokes a go.
“I thought we defended a lot better in our middle and controlled the ground a lot better. We can work on that and try to keep controlling the ball and put pressure on other teams with our defence.”
It capped off a successful weekend for the Bears who won in all three grades in the local comp as well as Colts to make it five-from-five.
BURLEIGH BEARS 18 (Talor Walters, Dimitri Pelo, Josh Ailaomai tries; Talor Walters 3 goals) def SOUTHS LOGAN MAGPIES 14 (Ihaka Watene, Scott Doyle tries; Scott Doyle 3 goals) at Pizzey Park.
Final Teams:
Burleigh Bears: 1. Talor Walters 2. Anthony Don 3. Jamie Dowling 4. Tyron Haynes 5. Dimitri Pelo 6. Todd Seymour 7. Ryley Jacks 8. Mitch Sharp 9. Kierran Moseley 21. David Hala 11. Nathaniel Peteru 12. Sam Swift 13. Darren Griffiths (c) 14. Jenan Parrish 15. Louis Fanene 19. Brad Tighe 17. Josh Ailaomai
Souths Logan Magpies: 1. Jack Joass 2. Ihaka Watene 3. David Faamita 4. Scott Doyle 5. Tim Brooks 6. Ben Thorburn 7. Rhys Jacks 8. Tikiko Noke 9. Travis Waddell 10. Andrew Edwards 11. Joe Boyce 12. Daniel Tamou 13. Phil Dennis (c) 14. Dan Russell 15. Ken Levu 16. Sam Gardel 17. Leon Panapa
